Slashdot Mirror

The more spyware/malware laws we get the better. It's so frustrating trying to use a computer with tons of spyware and spyware trojans. Ugh. And they say the average PC has 28 spyware programs running on it! This needs to stop.
It took me about 8 hours to clean out a friends computer the other day. He had about 15 viruses all installing spyware daily.
Here's some suggestions for cleaning your computer:

Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - this is key. Free auto-updates too
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

Lavasoft's Ad-Aware - run it every so often, and always be sure to update it manually.
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?pa rt=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

CWShredder - removes only a few trojans that give you tons of ads, but does a better job of fully removing them than ad-aware.
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html

Spybot-Search & Destroy - Similar to Ad-Aware. You should run both.
http://download.com.com/3000-8022-10122137.html

Leave the firewall turned ON, perhaps? Norton's stuff sucks, better to not install it at all if you want your machine to run well. Their stuff is bloated...VERY bloated. Use AVG for antivirus if you want one that small and free. Leave the XP firewall on and have fun! It's really not that difficult.

Because when they did that with web browsers, they got slapped with antitrust lawsuits?

Nobody is going to be "required" to purchase Microsoft's AntiVirus product. Nortan AntiVirus will continue to exist and it's what many people will continue to remain comfortable using. Microsoft's poor track record of dozens upon dozens of critical vulnerabilities in their OS and other software isn't going to make them the first company people think to go to for an antivirus solution... especially while Symantec has been making a name for itself as a legitimate security/antivirus company for years. Meanwhile, free antivirus software exists out there (for home users at least), including

On top of that, since Microsoft is not bundling the AV software as a part of the OS, so it's not going to be free. It's hard to compete against free, and there are a free ways that home users have to protect themselves against malicious code (Grisoft AVG, AntiVir Personal Edition, as well as free online options, like Panda ActiveScan and Trend Micro's Housecall).

So Microsoft has to compete against both an established anti-virus/system utility software company which many people are already using, as well as several viable free alternatives. No doubt Microsoft will have some success, but while these alternatives exist (and I suspect at least some of them will continue to exist for a long while), I don't quite see how you can call it extortion.

I took some precautions with my computer to prevent spyware but my roommate managed to mess it up pretty good, since then I have taken the correct steps to ensure protection. This is what I recommend if you want to keep a Windows computer safe from everything without paying for anything.

Whenever possible enable Automatic Updates for all applications (including Windows itself), if that's not an option update manually on a weekly basis.

System Protection:

Only use admin account when necessary.

Virus/Worm Protection/Removal:

Install AVG
Don't use Outlook Express use Thunderbird

Hacker/Worm Protection:

Enable XP Firewall (easiest) or Zonealarm or Kerio (my favorite)

Adware/Spyware/Pop-up Protection:

Don't use Internet Explorer use **** Frefox ****
If you have to use IE install the Google Toolbar
Run Spyware Blaster to give IE &/or Firefox more protection.
Install Spyware Guard and place in all users startup group to give real-time protection.

Adware/Spyware Removal:

Run SpyBot & Ad-Aware
In my experience each product alone doesn't get rid of everything, using both is the best way to go.

OR

Just take the Absolute Cheapest & Most Effective route and install Linux.

********
If you install Firefox you will want the following plugins, use Firefox to download the plugins.

Shockwave
Flash
Java

Look here for a nice custom patch. I just had to reinstall Windows for someone (not spyware, but just as dumb, they tried to install Win2k over Win98 with the disk scratched all to hell). I start with that, install the the free AVG and then Zone Alarm, Adaware, and spybot. I figure (hope) that'll keep the computer from comming right back to me.

Still, I wonder how long until Microsoft notices (and sues) this guy (whether what he's doing is legal or not won't matter to good 'ol MS).

I tried it for a while, but its habit of downloading the entire multi-megabyte package every time there was a signature update was annoying (for dial-up users...)

I've since switched to AVG Free Edition Which also works great and has regular incremental updates.

About two years ago I download a shareware program from a particular website.

After that, my PC acted sluggishly after I installed the program and whenever I when online.

I finally found out my PC had picked up the Klez virus and that a bunch of .exe files were infected with it.

After this incident, after disinfecting my PC, I took PC security very seriously!

I found the URLs below very helpful to keep my PC free of all malware:

The 'Home User Self Defense Guides' at http://www.uksecurityonline.com
(Thanks to spammers/crackers/blackhats, you have get a free account with a valid email address in order to access the Guides.)

AVG antivirus by Grisoft.
Sysclean by Trend Micro
Outpost Firewall by Agnitum.

My program CF13 keeps malware out of my PC by treating all email file attachments as 'text files'. This renders any malware in them inert and also makes it safe to scan said files for malware or otherwise handle them--even delete them.

The only way the botnets will continue to survive is through user inertia/apathy or, worse yet, trusted firewall/antivirus programs become silently compromised and used widely.

1. FireFox, how else am I going to find and download the rest?
2. AVG AV, so that the next 8 actually are what I want.
3. Net Transport, to get the next 7 faster.
4. WinRAR, some of the rest require extraction, and whatever one might say about WinRAR, I prefer it.
   
5. WinAmp, so that I can listen to RadioStorm while I wait for the rest to download.
   
6. Trillian Pro, so I can tell everyone I am reinstalling.
7. NoteTab Pro, I paid for it for a reason after all.
8. OpenOffice.org, so that I don't have to wait an hour for it to download when I need to use it later.
9. Scorched Earth 3D, for a little fun.
10. Synergy , check it out if you wanna know.

as this is Windows, it would tempt fate not to install some kind of anti-virus utility.

• Mozilla
• Spybot S&D
• AVG Anti-virus
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• ActiveState Perl
• America's Army (gotta test the graphics card, you know.)
• Winamp 5.0
• Open Office

I install Mozzie first, then I download and run Spybot Search and Destroy and run the cleanup/immunize functions, and then I install AVG. Nothing else is an "absolute" but I usually install them. (I don't install Visual Studio on other people's boxes, of course!)

AdAware, Spybot, F-prot, AVG and Antivir.

Seems like there's no software to catch them all, each have a sublist of what can be infested.

The good news is that all of them are easy to keep up to date and FREE.

Most people are confident that their lovely anti-virus
telling them "no virus found" is enough.

But most of the time, you can have 4 out of 5 Anti-virus up to date saying everything is fine
and the 5th one still finds some crapt on your lovely Windows.

There would be the problem of attempts to take down the download site. With all the vulnerabilities out there, surely it could be set up so that it would dynamically change from host to host, maybe even use P2P technology. It would be in the interest (it prevents viruses by using a competitor's product: takes away business) of Norton and McAfee to block the "worm," so they probably would. New variants would have to be released.

Disclaimer: This is all a hypothetical, intellectual discussion, not an advocacy for it, nor an intention to carry it out.

Amen, brother!

I honestly don't know the answer. Ignorance? Stupidity? A false sense of security? All of the above, possibly.

I deal with this every day at work. We have about 40 computers, all protected by Symantec's corporate edition, and this setup usually works. However, after all the worms and viruses that we see, and after all the times I've talked to people about it, I still see people opening infected attachments, then, when I tell them they've been infected, saying, "I don't think so. I didn't see it do anything." My response is, "Yes, it did something. Just because you didn't see anything doesn't mean it didn't. I'll be up there in a minute to clean it up." Then, I lose a half hour of my workday dealing with scanning their system to make sure Symantec stopped whatever it was they ran and telling them once again not to open every e-mail they get, and if they're not sure about something they receive, then, for God's sake, call me and ask before they do anything with it.

I think I want to hold an office-wide meeting on this stuff. Need to run that by the Administrator...

But anyway, there are some good, free resources out there that I think everyone ought to be using.

For quick scans and cleanups of computers without any AV app installed, I like Trend Micro's free scanner at http://housecall.trendmicro.com.

For a free AV program, you can't beat AVG Anti-Virus, available at http://www.grisoft.com.

For firewall software, ZoneAlarm still does the trick nicely. http://www.zonelab.com I just wish they didn't go through such great effort to make the free download hard to get at. I wonder if Real designed their site.

And we can't forget Microsoft in all this. One of the best things they've done lately is to finally get somewhat on the ball with their Windows security site at http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect. You can even get free or discounted AV software by following links in the section on antivirus software. And the free Windows Security Update CD is a must-have for anyone who has to mess with computers owned by the, shall we say, less informed among us.

Finally, and this is the thing that is really starting to piss me off, we have way too many ISPs out there who don't seem to give two shits about getting infected PCs off their networks after they've been reported to them numerous times. How hard is it to call a customer who's been reported, tell them they're infected, and tell them they have 24 hours to clean it up, and if they get another report after then, the connection will be shut off? But I guess that would negatively impact the bottom line, and we can't have that.

"firewalls create problems while performing daily business tasks on the server from home"

Not a well-configured software one. It's not as safe as a hardware firewall, but it is a heck of a lot safer than running around with your pants down, not knowing when your machine is connecting and what it is sending. It makes it difficult to connect *to* the machine, but your home winbox shouldn't be a remote server anyway.

Grab ZoneAlarm NOW, and put up with a few extra dialog boxes until it is trained.

Furthermore, good Antivirus software will detect many trojans. Get AVG if you have alredy abandoned your AV of choice.

This must sound like free windows security 101 by now, but get AdAware and / or Spybot, and schedule a regular download / check for once every week.

For encrypting sensitive or old data, you can either use windows built-in encryption (which uses your user password, enable this now if your machine is fast enough) and / or pick up a (non-free) copy of Dekart Private Disk, AKA The Bat! Private Disk, a simple encrypted virtual disk creator. Anything you really don't want people to see should go here... Just remember to shut it down when you're done.

Furthermore, don't use I.E. and don't use Outlook. What many people refer to as "computer" viruses or "windows" exploits are really just I.E. exploits or Outlook viruses. Firebird, I mean, Thun... Firefox is a powerful little internet surfer, which while not as flexible as my beloved Opera (ducks), does render pages faster, is more beginner friendly, and is free. Thunderbird is a good mail replacement, though pegasus mail, Opera's built in e-mail client, and the non-free The Bat! are all good choices. If you want the most security possible, try Secure Bat. At 140 dollars per copy, it isn't cheap, but it does encrypt all of your personal files and utilizes hardware token authentication to ensure that you really are who you say you are.

Finally, don't forget to regularly back up your disks to something not normally connected to the computer. For simplicity's sake, I'd attach an external USB drive and run Polder Backup once a week, removing the drive when done. For a more automated approach, get a PC controllable X10 unit, and have it turn on and off the external USB drive, so that backups can be completely automatic.

avg free edition might also be a good choice. i haven't actually tried it cos i don't run windows, but it looks good.

i found this while looking for av software for my brother's pc, as he's recently had some virus problems. of course, i also got him using thunderbird and firefox ;-)

Um, yes AVG Free Edition is still free (for home use) - there are terms & conditions as usual so go read it up on http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php.

Even when paid for, AVG is a lot cheaper than the big names, especially for multiple licence deals.

Jolyon

An admirable circumstance, plus an excellent solution to boot.

Sadly, I had no such good fortune when being tasked with rescuing my father-in-law's machine yesterday. First thing to do was uninstall his anti-virus software (what with it being five years out of date), and then install AVG 6.0 plus Spybot 1.2 and run those...

2,500 infected files, 90+ spyware items, and at least a dozen infected email attachments later, it was time to update his drivers and then spend a couple of hours in the company of Windows Update.

Now that the machine is back on its own two feet again, I've setup AVG to run at every boot and Windows startup. I've also set Spybot to run every Windows startup too. It's certainly not ideal*, but it should help save him from the more malicious kind of crap out there (or is it 'here'?).

* I acknowledge that my father-in-law's system could have had even better protection, should I have chosen to install something like Kerio Personal Firewall. But this was a favour - a helping hand - not an exercise in trying to completely confuse an infrequent user with an encyclopaedia's-worth of jargon. He just wanted to get back to browsing as quickly and painlessly as possible, and, given the quick turnaround, he's pleased with the results; everything is as it was, he's not lost any data, and his computer now has a good deal more protection than it did. It's non-intrusive too, which is even more of a benefit to a casual user. I guess the only real trade-off is that Windows takes a few moments longer to start up.

I don't quite agree with your car analogy there. While it IS a good comparison, you're comparing the wrong things. You can literally see your car has 4 tires and 4 doors, just by looking at it. You know it has an automatic transmission because thats one of the vehicles interfaces. You know the engine is a V4 (you've GOT to be euro if your car has a V4 btw... ;)) from either opening the hood or remembering the specs when you bought it.
Most of those are inherently visual elements. In the same vein, any computer user can tell you that they have a keyboard and mouse, a monitor, and some speakers. Some might even know the size of the monitor or the brand of the kbd/mouse (probably by the logo on it ;)). Quite a few users could also probably tell you that they have a "Pentium something", hinting at a very vauge knowledge of the specs when they bought it.

The problem, then, is that they don't know all the insides of their mysterious black (or beige) box. How much RAM? What speed? What processor? Sound card? Video card? HD size? Most people couldn't tell you that. But then the question is, what can you tell me about your cars engine internals? What's the bore and stroke? Is it an alluminum or iron block? OVH, SOHC, or DOHC? High or low impedience injectors? Interference design or not? Whats the total oil capacity? Do you know? Probably not (I certainly couldn't tell you my cars bore/stroke off the top of my head). Should you still be allowed to operate a car? Of course!
So in the same way that vehicle owner/operators may not have the foggiest idea of what goes on inside a modern internal combustion engine, the staggering majority of computer owner/operators have no idea what exactly goes on inside their case. Intimate knowledge of your vehicle isn't a requirement to operate it, so why should it be any different on a computer? Cars have diagnostic systems and idiot lights, why shouldn't an OS? If people want ease of use, then thats what you'll have to give them. I know it won't happen overnight (hell, it took the motor vehicle industry HOW long to get to where it is today?), but it *HAS* to be an eventual goal of Linux if it ever hopes to rescue the proverbial OS princess.

Now incase you're wondering, I use Windows XP. (Unfortunatly). I don't really want to, but for me to play all my games and use all my art/graphic design programs, I pretty much have to. But beyond that, I know roughly how Windows works and how to work in and around it. I don't have to touch a CLI (had enough of that in the days of DOS). I don't have to memorize a million little acronyms and commands. I don't have to mount drives or hunt down obscure libraries. I'd just rather not spend half my computing time trying to maintain my system. Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-Linux, i'm just pro-me. I can use Windows, and my parents and sister can use it. Its easy, even if its a shitty program. That said, I long ago ripped off the Firestones. Both mine and my parents box runs Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, AVG, AdAware, and KPF. So I feel fairly confident that neither system is at great risk. Yeah its a pain in the ass, and i'd rather not have to deal with securing two boxes, but its the price I pay for the compatibility and ease of use I want, and my that familly demands.

And when the day comes that Linux offers the same ease of use and compatibility in a better package? You best believe i'm jumping ship and taking every computer in this house with me.

I patiently await that day.

I work in a campus Student Computing Helpdesk, and with the scans we run on most of the computers brought in, about 80-90% have a virus, trojan, or downloader (as found by AVG). I *never* see a computer where Spybot cannot find spyware, though to be fair, it will also find cookies and shortcuts. The computers that really worry me are the 25% that have a browser hijacker, such as CoolWeb. I've seen ones where every page request will redirect you to incredifind.com. We use CWShredder to clear up those. Side note: If you remove spyware from your computer and suddenly all your internet applications stop working, you possibly removed a spyware program that had rooted itself into Winsock. Try WinsockFix to clear that up.

• Use Firefox. No need to worry about ActiveX spybars.
  
  
• Get AVG Anti-virus. Keeps out the trojans and viruses.
  
  
• Use Ad-aware. Say goodbye to malware.
  
  
• Above all else, use a personal firewall. You won't have to worry about programs calling home without your permission.

I am giving up my mod points on this aritcle to reply.

Go and download/buy a file recovery program before it is to late. Tell your pop to not use the computer until you get the file recovery software installed. You should be able to get most/all of the files back since I doubt the virus did any kind of secure delete.

Your next step is to switch your pop to Linux if he doesn't require any MS specific application. If Linux is not an option then download AVG Anti-Virus. There is a free version for personal use that comes with an Outlook Express plugin to scan incoming/outgoing email. I also would put Kerio Personal Firewall on your pop's computer. Those two things should keep his computer much safer in the future.

It really does stink to lose that kind of personal data.

Some security companies do give back to the community. GRISOFT offers a free version of AVG Anti-Virus 6.0 for single home users. Zone Labs offers a free version of the Zone Alarm firewall.

Do you know of any other companies that offer free anti-viral or firewall software?

Some security companies do give back to the community. GRISOFT offers a free version of AVG Anti-Virus 6.0 for single home users. Zone Labs offers a free version of the Zone Alarm firewall.

Do you know of any other companies that offer free anti-viral or firewall software?

this next service pack is going to seriously fuck up some software industries... a better personal firewall, a popup killer, and now antivirus, all now bundled with the OS? and free?!

So the other free AV tool screwed up the expensive paid ones?

What's the big deal?

The firewall in XP is positively useless. Many ISPs still include the free or pro versions of ZoneAlarm.
Do you really expect an antivirus product to be any better?
If we're lucky, it'll be on par with other free antivirus solutions like AVG.

Pop-up stoppers are already free for IE, and built-in to Mozilla, and AFAIK also in Opera
Having one built in to IE won't kill any businesses, it will just make it easier on the Google Toolbar coders who won't need to have this feature anymore.

If there's one software industry I wouldn't shed many tears over the loss of, it's the one whose business model is to profit thanks to viruses.

Get Grisoft.

AVG, free anti-virus software... Free to download, free virus definition updates. I'm not sure how quickly they react to new viruses and worms, but they have MyDoom and MyDoom.b in there. Also not sure how it chalks up in comparison to McAfee and Norton, but that's because I am generally careful with my computer--the only time my computer has been infected in the past few years was when I let a friend use it and she used IE to browse the web instead of Mozilla *cringe*. So yeah, I don't know how nice it is compared to the others out there since it pretty much just does a scan once a week and confirms that my computer is clean.

AVG has a free edition, with free virus updates too. I don't like the interface, but it gets a decent job at scanning the email attachments.

...since yesterday, apparently. Good to see Grisoft keeping AVG up to date.
Oh, and they've got a little blurb on the virus too.

...since yesterday, apparently. Good to see Grisoft keeping AVG up to date.
Oh, and they've got a little blurb on the virus too.

...since yesterday, apparently. Good to see Grisoft keeping AVG up to date.
Oh, and they've got a little blurb on the virus too.

I don't know, maybe Grisoft's retail version may be good, but about a year ago I downloaded about a dozen viruses just to see how well the free AVG Antivirus version, McAfee, & Norton detect them. Although far from an exaustive test, AVG missed about a third of the viruses, but Mcafee & Norton caught every one.

Free is good, but sometimes you do get what you pay for.

It let me know a pop-up blocker was on the way (I was SO going to get Earthlink :), it let me know Outlook will be better in keeping viruses in check, and finally a firewall that will help keep viruses and spyware from running on my computer.

Cause you had no browsers with native pop-up blocking,,No virus-free mail clients,, and no free anti-virus for XP before now
please...

Sadly, as spammers become interested in exploited open relays for their "business", writing viruses is slowly but surely becoming lucrative. And we're not talking about some random 13 year olds with a 1997 OE exploit, here, either. While most professionals would never write a virus for fun, money is always a very good, very valid and very strong argument.

Such is life. Get Grisoft AVG while you can, free and good virus scanner. Norton sans bloat and anual subscriptions.

You, and a lot of other people apparently, seem to be missing the point. We don't care if they block anti-gun sites also. I don't want them to, and the poster probably doesn't either. What we're outraged about is that sites solely dedicated to promoting true information and political discussion about legal gun use (hunting, target shooting, self-defense, etc), and promoting the defense of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution (yes, we still have one), are lumped together with sites that may tell you how to build a bomb or homemade gun and may promote the uses of such for nefarious, illegal purposes. This is what is unacceptable to us. They are censoring only one side of a political discussion.

When it comes right down to it, the NRA and similar websites talk about the same things that that anti-gun sites talk about, i.e., guns and gun rights (gasp!). Thus if they (Symantec) followed their own insanity properly they would also lump anti-gun sites into the "weapons" category. So in the end, this really is a case of blatant anti-gun bias. The filter creators want your children to see anti-gun information even when you've told the filter you want to block "weapons" sites. They've made the political decision for you that it's OK to show your children "weapons" sites as long as they are anti-gun sites.

All I know is, Symantec products are crap, they're implementing activation features, and now this shite. It's the straw that broke this camel's back. I'll never buy or recommend another Symantec product.

Other people have made recommendations for alternatives, but here's mine anyway to help increase the signal-to-noise ratio:
Firewall: Kerio Personal Firewall
Anti-virus: AVG

(Both free for personal use.)

Check out the free personal version.

If you liked AtGuard, then check out Outpost Firewall. Version 1.0 is free while version 2.0 (better against leaktests, new logging system) has a 30-day trial. This allows you to craft specific rules (direction, protocol, port, IP address) for each application and has a number of plugins for other tasks (ad-filtering, activex/java/script/cookie control, DNS cache). There's an online guide and a user-run support forum.

For anti-virus software, have a look at Grisoft AVG. It's free for personal use, though you need to supply a valid email to get a registration code.

Kerio beta 4 and AVG anti-virus, best free solutions for windows atm, imho.

firewall
antivirus

Product Activation on products as important as antivirus apps is bad IMO. When average users are confronted with this, its easy for them to get frustrated with, and what happenes when average users get frustrated with software? They dont use it.

As with all stories about virri, here is the link to a FREE Antivirus app.

AVG Anti-Virus

Nice, free anti-virus software with frequent updates, schedulability(sp?), etc.

I don't believe you. I have XP Pro installed on a machine that's connected to an ADSL line not quite 24 hours a day, but not that far off it either. So far, since installing it in January, I've not had a single virus infection, or been hit with any trojans, etc.

Still, assuming for a moment that you are telling the truth, go here and download and install the free version of AVG, and say goodbye to viruses.

I've tried a good deal of the stuff listed. The following are the most intuitive, free, software products I have encountered. They increase productivity, and are stable.

Freeware List: If you can think of it, it's in here.
OpenCD: Precompiled CD with all open source software.
Doom9.org: Famed site for lots of media tools.
Trillian: AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo! IM software all in one.
AVG Anti-Virus: Free AV
SpyBot (Spam Remover): Free Spam Remover/Search & Destroy
Firebird: Web browser w/ adblock & popup control.
FileZilla FTP: FTP Client
Smart FTP: Free Client, better looking, faster
Kerio: Personal Firewall, better than ZoneAlarm
Textpad: Text Editor.
PuTTY: SSH Client.
CygWin: Linux emulation.
FFDshow: DivX/XVid decoder.
TweakUI: Microsoft's famed Powertoy for Windows XP.
WinAce: Fast, high-compression (40% smaller, faster compression than ZIP).
WinAmp: MP3 player, with this skin.
dBpowerAMP: Music Converter (copies CDs to MP3)

One last thing, don't use Outlook. Find a better program: Eudora, Thunderbird, or PegasusMail (in that order) are safer/more powerful. Windows comes bundled with great software, just like Mandrake - but their internet package leaves much (security) to be desired.

I've spent a fair bit of time playing with various pieces of software, and here's what I keep running on my home PC:

Virus Killer

AVG Anit-Virus, a virus killer from Grisoft where a gratis version (free edition) is available. I'm not sure of its protection level but updates are available fairly frequently.

It's also quite poor in its appearance but it's hard to complain at a free virus killer when it must take a lot of time to maintain such a project. However, I'd not put all your trust in it, keep a wary eye on your system, a false sense of security is not a good thing!

Firewalls

Of the firewalls, I use an old version of Tiny Personal Firewall. They used to do a free version but unfortunately they now charge leaving you with few options other than the 'firewall for dummies' known as Zone Alarm.

Virtual Desktops

For desktop switching, a very useful thing you you program or work with graphics or CAD, there is an app called Multidesk from Tech Superior.

Unlike other products, it's light and onobtrusive. It puts an icon (or several -- your choice) in the system tray and you can switch desktop with a click of the icon or the keyboard shortcuts.

Web Browser

For web browsing, it's hard to beat Mozilla Firebird (formerly Phoenix). It's fast, supports tabbed browsing as is open source. You can get it from Mozilla.org

Web Filtering

Proximitron, a web filtering and page alteration proxy that lets you remove annoyances and even rewrite web-sites on the fly. The product is no longer supported or developed but some sites still have the download, best look at Proximitron.info.

The product is great in that you can match any HTML and replace it with whatever you like. The Proximitron author provides many such filters with the product and clever use of JavaScript allows all sorts of annoyances such as adverts, pop-ups, pop-unders, browser unloads, right mouse disabling to be removed or altered. I'm very sad it is no longer maintained.

Email Client

A good email client is really hard to find. I've been using an old build of the Mozilla suite but Mozilla Thunderbird is looking promising. I've used many other free clients including Outlook Express (discontinued), Sylpheed Claws (poor), et al but they are all flawed in some way. I'm not using Thunderbird yet but I soon will be. You can get it from Mozilla.org.

Email Spam Protection

POPFile, a great, free, open source baysian filter for email, hosted on Sourceforge.

TweakUI

I'm not sure if they do one for XP, I've never upgraded for political reasons but TweakUI has been available for other versions of Windows since Windows 95 at least. It provides a lot of advanced features that Microsoft left out of the rest of the user interface and allows you fix a lot of the common problems such as corrupted icon cache, manually removed applications as well as setting advanced preferances such as double-click rectangle size, etc. A must for any seasoned user running Windows. Available in PowerToys from the MS website.

Cygwin

Ports of many popular tools from GNU etc. that are normally available on a Linux/BSD environment. If you're dual booting Windows and Linux, then these are a must. Available from the Cygwin website.

Virtual Machine Emulation

If you're serious about dual booting, then you may want to cosider VMWare. It's very pricey but a fantastically cool product than effectively emulates an I386 PC and its hardware, allowing a second OS to run in a window on the native OS.

It's a

"I'm buying a new mid-grade laptop computer, which I plan to dual-boot between Windows XP Home and Mandrake 9.x. Before its arrival in a few weeks I'm trying to think of what 'essential' software I'll need to make a usable home system. In general I'd like to spend as little money as possible (free is good). As far as my needs, think 'typical family PC' without an emphasis on gaming. I know I can get something like Open Office for word processing, presentation, etc. needs, but is there such a good thing as a good free virus checker? A good free email client? A handy web browser? What would you consider the top 10 (or so) pieces of software for a new home system, bearing in mind that I need software for both the Windows and Linux side of things?""

These are the files I keep on my "Esential CDs" that I bring around to help out other non-techs (Windows users) people. (Of course because they are financially broke after paying $200 for their Operating System, they want everything else to be free.) ;-)

Anti-Virus: The best free antivirus program I have found AVG Anti-Virus 6.0

Office Suite: (Word Processing, SpreadsThe quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped off the edge. The quick brown fox ran off with all his toysheet, Slideshows, etc.)
Open Office 1.1

CD/DVD data/audio Burner: (and doubles as a CD image creator .ISO and .CUE)
BurnAtOnce 0.99a

CD/DVD image loader/emulator (perfect for people who often misplace their CDs): (loads .ISO, .CUE, .CCD, .CDI etc. files without burning them)
DAEMON Tools 3.41

MultiMedia Player (Mpeg, Mp3, AVI, etc.)Winamp Classic 2.91

or for audio only Foobar 2000 0.7

Zip Extractor:Ultimate Zip or7 Zip 3.11

Download Accelerator:Star Downloader v1.42

Internet Browser: (other than IE) Mozilla 1.4 or Opera 6.20

System Statistics: (Motherboard, Memory, BIOS, Video, Software info, etc)AIDA32 3.80

E-mail (other than Outlook Express)Thunderbird 0.2 or Pegasus Mail 4.12

Spyware/Adware killer:Ad-aware 6 or Spybot Search & Destroy 1.2

Pop-up Killer/Browser Enhancer (for IE)Google Toolbar 2.0.102

PDF document reader:Adobe Acrobat 6.0

FTP program (other than IE and the command line FTP)Winsock FTP LE 5.08 or FileZilla 2.2.1

Internet Chat Programs (other than Windows Messenger)Gaim 0.70or Trillian Basic 0.74E

Firewall Software:ZoneAlarm 3.7.211

or if you have Highspeed Internet, a spare 200mhz PC, and two network cards laying around...ClarkConnect 2.0

CD Ripper / MP3 Creator CDex 1.51

Graphics Editor (other than Paint) The Gimp

Graphics viewer (other

we're getting pretty far off target from a family home computer here but, here are some of my favorite alternatives to the above list;

mozilla - if prefer MyIE2
ws ftp - i much prefer filezilla
PuTTY - try transparent putty
vnc - if you're running xp or 2k you should go with ultravnc
gnu-emacs - yikes!if you must have a unix style text editor under windows, may i recommend cream for vim
free-av - i'd probably go with AVG anti virus
boingo - don't forget netstumbler

here are a few more i install before i ever run a new system;

foobar2000 console2
divx player
stuffit expander
trillian
and if you need an email client try popcorn

i've got links to lots more free windows software at my links page

AVG AntiVirus (free for home use)

Mozilla.org: Suite (browser, mail/news); Firebird (browser); Thunderbird (mail/news) [all free]

OpenOffice.org office suite (free)

Kerio Personal Firewall (free for home use)

WinAMP multimedia (free)

Trillian IM client (AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Y!) [free version available]

AdAware privacy protector (free for home use)

AnalogX random ultilities(many freebies)

There doesn't seem to be a huge lack of free products that ship with most Linux distros, and I don't use it as a general OS enough to point to anything specific, hence most of my list (but not all) is Windows only. Sorry.

-bZj

• CygWin. The Linux-like environment for Windows.
  Mozilla. Use this for mail, news, and browsing if you like.
  Firebird. for FAST browsing.
  WS FTP Light. A FREE, FTP client that works great.
  Filezilla. which is TRULY free and does sftp as well.
  PuTTY. a free SSH client for Windows.
  TTSSH. is a much less clunky ssh client than PuTTY.
  iXplorer. freeware secure FTP client
  VNC hello!? remote controll software.
  Tight VNClike the original, only FAST.
  GNU-EMacs for Windows. just trust me ;).
  Dev-C++a free C++ compiler for those who can't afford VS.
  NetHack. as someone here said, you MUST have NetHack installed on everything...
  Free-AV.free Anti-Virus software for Windows, (mandatory these days). or
  AVG Free edition. another free Anti-Virus software for Windows.
  Zonealarm. my favorite Personal Firewall,, really!. or
  Kerio. another firewall that some seem to like. or
  Sygate. yet another firewall. whatever floats your boat.
  Boingo. to see where the closest hotspot is, hehe.
  OpenOffice 1.1 the Microsoft Office KILLER :) {really!}
  Winamp 2.x for audio/video usage in Windows, stay away from the new one :).
  Mark's Adding Machine is much better than the Windows calculator.
  SpyBot Search & Destroy The best Ad-ware / Spyware removal tool we've found, "IE is unusable without".
  Ad-Aware another spy-ware app "alas poor Windoze."
  Trillian a favorite IM, since we're all chatters @ heart. or
  GAIM since trillian hogs resources, "bad piggy!".
  Gimp image creation/editing. Who needs Photoshop anyway?
  EnZip freeware Zip Utility, Stop nagging you WinZip!!
  Iview is a great little image viewer. or
  Irfanviewone of the best image viewer out there for Windows.
  Audacity is a great little sound editor.
  Virtual Dub. a great video editor.
  cDex gotta rip those cd's for the RIAA!
  MAME for games, period. Free. You can buy some ROMs, or *ahem* ask around. and finally
  XPantiSPY since XP is E-V-I-L.

And FINALLY, don't trust me! Trust the experts;

Go to the Pricelessware site maintained by the alt.comp.freeware Usenet group.
The

I can only give you my top 10 and hope it ties in with other peoples:

Anti Virus - AVG - Updated regularly and free for non commercial use - FREE
Browser - Mozilla - A stable and standards compliant browser, and not tied in with the OS unlike IE! - FREE
Compression - PowerArchiver - Freeware ZIP/RAR/CAB/LHA/TAR/etc/etc! - FREE
Security - ZoneAlarm - For piece of mind when connected - FREE
Email - MailWasher - Eliminate spam without downloading to your computer - FREE
Registry - RegCleaner - An invaluable registry tool - FREE
MP3 - WinAmp - Still my fav MP3 player after all these years - FREE
MPEG - VLC - A very comprehensive media player - FREE
CD - Daemon Tools - A CD emulator, once a gamer has used this they never uninstall it! - FREE
Games - MAME - An arcade emulator... essential for people over the age of 25! - FREE
FTP & Download - LeechFTP - Unintrusive, easy to use, hard to crash (unlike BPFTP) - FREE


Well thats my two penneth anyway :o)

These are some of the free (speech or beer) software I'd install on a family, non-gaming machine:

• Web Browser: Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird
• E-mail: Mozilla (cross-platform), Mozilla Thunderbird (cross-platform), Evolution (Gnome), or KMail (KDE)
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org
• Media Player: QuickTime (Windows), Zinf (cross-platform), RealPlayer (cross-platform), WinAmp (Windows), MPlayer (Windows), XMMS (Linux)
• Image Viewer: IrfanView (Windows)
• Instant Messaging: Gaim (cross-platform)
• Personal Information Management: Palm Desktop Software (great PIM suite even if you don't own a Palm)
• Other: Acrobat Reader (although I'm weary of their DRM), Java 2 Runtime Environment, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave players, Ad-Aware (spyware remover for Windows), ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall (firewall, alternative to ZoneAlarm), Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus, FileZilla, WinRAR (not free, shareware with nag window), Ofoto desktop software (basic photo album and touch-ups, even if you don't use Ofoto's online services)

Some other software I'd install on my own desktop (dev), in decreasing order of importance:

• Cygwin, bascially all packages
• UltraEdit32 (45-day trial shareware)
• TightVNC
• Ghostscript and GSView
• Java 2 SDK
• Eclipse
• Borland JBuilder Personal
• ActiveState Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk (yes, even though they are in Cygwin), Jython
• GIMP
• POV-Ray
• At least one of Apache, Tomcat, or Plone (Zope)
• HTTrack (a website copier)