Free software and useful links

If you are looking for something and cannot find it, please email us so we can find software to fit your needs and update our list.

Suggested software for daily use
FireFox - great free customizable alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser.
OpenOffice - free alternative to Microsoft's Office suite.
Thunderbird - free alternative to Microsoft Outlook email program.

AVG Free - Protection from viruses.
Avast - Virus and spyware protection in one package.
Avira AntiVir - Another free virus scanner.

Online virus scanners
Trend Micro - scan for a wide range of threats and remove them if found.
McAfee - online virus scanner.
Kaspersky - scans for viruses and spyware.
Virus Total - upload and scan individual suspicious files which are then scanned by multiple virus scanners.

Protection - Anti-Malware
A good forum discussion at SpyBot on "how did I get an infection?"  It offers some good general advice on protecting your computer.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware - an excellent anti-malware scanner.  Free version offers manual scanning only.
Super Anti-Spyware Free - Free scanner for spyware, uses little memory.  Free version offers manual scanning only.
SpywareBlaster - immunizes your computer against many known spyware threats.
Ad-Aware - Free spyware protection.  Free version runs in the background to offer ongoing protection..
SpyBot - Another free scanner for spyware.  Has options for ongoing protection and immunization.

Maintenance
Defraggler - Can be used to defragment an entire drive or just selected files on the drive.
CCleaner - An easy and safe way to clean out temporary files, remove old registry entries and keep your computer clean.  We suggest downloading and using the "slim" build of CCleaner found at this link

File backup
Cobain Backup - Free backup software that can handle full, incremental and differential backups to external drives, network locations or FTP locations.  Can be run on a schedule or as needed.
SyncToy 2.0 - A simple to use utility from Microsoft for backup up files to alternate locations. Can also be used to synchronize files between two different locations.
DriveImageXML - An excellent tool for backing up your entire drive.

Data Recovery
Below are several utilities for recovering accidentally deleted files.  
NOTE:  If you have lost files on a drive it is essential to stop using the computer until we can examine it.  Otherwise the location for the files on the drive could be overwritten making recovery more difficult or impossible.
Data Recovery
Restoration
Undelete Plus (free as of 12/12/08)
PC Inspector File Recovery
Recuva

LifeHacker also has a good article on the basics of recovering files.

Information Gathering
WinAudit - A great utility for gathering all the information about your computer, operating system, hardware, software and other information.
System Information for Windows - Another great utility for information gathering.
Crucial Memory Scanner - Don't know what type of memory your computer has or if you can upgrade?  This scanner will let you know.
Disktective and Folder Tree Size - Two utilities that allow you to easily see what folders are taking up the most space on your computer.

Internet Filtering
K9 - An excellent free Internet filtering software solution.  A good choice for those who wish to restrict what their children can access on the Internet.

CD/DVD Utilities
CDBurnerXP - Free software for burning CD/DVDs and creating disk images (ISO files).
ImgBurn - Another free utility for creating disk images and burning images to CD/DVDs.
DeepBurner Free - The free version of this utility is a small download that lets you burn CDs/DVDs.  A portable version is also available that does not require an install and can be used from a USB drive or other removable device.
Virtual Clone Drive - Create virtual CD/DVD drives.  Useful when you have a CD or DVD image you wish to load in place of keeping the physical disc in the drive.

Image Viewing and Manipulation
Picasa  - From Google.  A simple image viewer and organizer for all your digital photos.  Also has the ability to do basic image manipulation.  
XnView - Excellent image viewer with basic editing functions as well as batch conversion of file names and formats.
Paint.NET - For more advanced image manipulation, try Paint.NET.

Miscellaneous utilities
BullZip PDF creator - Install and choose this as your printer to create PDF files from anything that can normally be printed.
Easeus Partition Manager - Rezise, delete, create and merge partitions on your hard disk.
Darik's Boot and  Nuke (DBAN) - Create a bootable floppy disk or CD that will securely erase all data from the drives of most computers.  This is essential prior to selling an old drive or otherwise giving it away.
Glary Utilities -- This utility package handles many common cleaning and repair tasks easily.
StartupRun - Manage which programs load when your computer boots up.  Supports up and through Windows XP.
DelEmpty - Finds and lets you delete empty folders/directories on your computer.
HDTune - Scan your hard drives for errors, check drive settings and monitor the temperature.