FixMyXPs List of the Best Freeware

AVG (Antivirus)

AVG Free Edition has spearheaded the company's growth. According to Grisoft, the makers of AVG, over 50 million users have AVG Anti-Virus protection; this includes both users of the Free Edition and the Paid Edition. (AVG Anti-Virus Professional is the paid version of the program),

The AVG Free Edition is similar to the Anti-Virus Professional product, but does not have all the features. It lacks the fine-grained control over how scans are conducted, and it receives lower priority (than the paid-for products) when downloading updates from Grisoft's servers. The language interface cannot be customized, and English is the only available language.

Technical Support is not available for the Free Edition, whereas support is available to users of the Professional, paid for products. Despite this, the AVG Free Edition is still a excellent program and definitely worth checking out.

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Avast! (Antivirus)

Avast is another free antivirus solution. The software is aimed at preventing several types of computer threats, including those that are not technically computer viruses such as spyware and even rogue anti-spyware, and can also make a virus Recovery DataBase which is used to recover files when they are infected (instead of just deleting them). The product can be downloaded with full text and voice translations to more than 25 different languages.

One of the really cool things about Avast, is that it allows you to change the look of the program with Skins.

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ArovaxShield (Antivirus)

Arovax Shield™ is a brand new type of personal security solution that is unlike to any firewall, anti-virus or spyware remover.

Rather than looking for spyware traces or tracking applications that secretly send or receive data over the Internet, Arovax Shield blocks any attempt by malicious software to add entries to the auto-start menu, change the registry, hijack or install itself into a browser or find any other way to stealthy get itself onto a PC.

Arovax Shield protects your PC with bulletproof security from both known and unknown threats before they even get on your Personal Computer

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Filezilla (FTP File Transfer Program)

FileZilla is a free, open source FTP client for Windows. It supports FTP (FTP is used to transfer files from computer to computer, mainly used when transferring files to a webserver), SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS). The main features are the site manager, message log, file and folder view, and the transfer queue.

The site manager allows a user to create a list of FTP sites along with their connection data, such as the port number to use, the protocol to use, and whether to use anonymous or normal logon. For normal logon, the username is saved and optionally the password.

The message log is displayed along the top of the window. It displays the console-type output showing the commands sent by FileZilla and the remote server's responses.

The file and folder view, displayed under the message log, provides a graphical interface for FTP. Users can navigate folders and view and alter their contents on both the local and remote machines using an Explorer-style tree interface. Users can drag and drop files between the local and remote computers.

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SmartFTP (FTP File Transfer Program)

SmartFTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client which allows you to transfer files between your local computer and a server on the Internet. With its many basic and advanced features SmartFTP also offers secure, reliable and efficient transfers that make it a powerful tool.

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7-zip (File Archiver/Compression)

7-Zip is an open source file archiver designed originally for the Microsoft Windows operating system, and later made available to other systems. In the form of p7zip, 7-Zip has been ported for use on Unix-like systems such as Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. It is also compatible with DOS via either a DOS port, or by using the HX-DOS extender to run the Windows command-line version.

7-Zip supports many file types, including: GZ, TAR, ZIP, GZIP, RAR, Microsoft (CAB) files, CD/DVD Iso, Bzip2, ARJ, CPIO, LHA, RPM and DEB.

Prior to using 7-zip, multiple programs were needed to open the most popular file compression types (For RAR, WinRAR was needed, for ZIP, WinZip was needed, etc.)

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Ad-Aware (Spyware Scanner)

Ad-Aware is an anti-spyware program from Lavasoft that detects and removes software on a user's computer that is determined to be spyware or adware. It also detects dialers, trojans, malware, data-mining, aggressive advertising, parasites, browser hijackers, and tracking components.

The makers of Ad-Aware, Lavasoft, also offer a paid version of Ad-Aware. The main difference between the free version and the paid version is that the paid version offers real time scanning.

The newest version of Ad-Aware, while not as good as its successor (Ad-Aware 6.0 SE), is still a great program and worth installing.

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Arovax Antispyware (Spyware Protection)

Per Arovaxs website...

With its most recent update, Arovax AntiSpyware has become even more reliable and effective. Arovax AntiSpyware Spyware Database is completely updated to discover malicious software and to distinguish it from the legal software. All found malicious software are now automatically checked for removing, and those items which will be marked as unknown can be sent to the Arovax lab for the further research and analysis.

One of the most important features of the new update is the implemented regular Signature database update. Arovax AntiSpyware is now able to completely secure your system from the most latest viruses, trojans, spyware, etc

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SpyBot (Spyware Scanning/Protection)

Spybot can fix problems with tracking cookies, system internals (Registry), Winsock LSPs, ActiveX objects, browser hijackers and BHOs, and can to some extent protect a user's privacy by deleting usage tracks. Spybot also includes an "Immunize" feature to block the installation of spyware before it occurs. Another tool included in Spybot is a file shredder, for the secure deletion of files.

A Tea-Timer module can be optionally enabled, which provides a level of active, real-time protection from undesirable registry changes and such; it is unusual for such a feature to be offered as part of a free anti-spyware program.

Spybot has won numerous awards, including the PC World Best Buy and World Class 2003 Awards, the PC Magazine Editors Choice and PC User Top Buy #1

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Spyware Blaster (Spyware Protection)

Here is what Spyware Blaster does:

• Prevent the installation of ActiveX-based spyware, adware, browser hijackers, dialers, and other potentially unwanted software.
• Block spyware/tracking cookies in Internet Explorer and Mozilla/Firefox.
• Restrict the actions of potentially unwanted sites in Internet Explorer.
• Provides the aforementioned protection without running a process in the background

Spyware Blaster stands out from the crowd of antispyware solutions . It protects your system from spyware and it does this without having a process running in the background. That feature is huge, that means that you can actively protect your system from spyware and not take a performance loss for it.

Spyware Blaster is freeware that provides spyware protection without any consequence. It is a absolute must for anyone wanting to protect themselves from spyware. No performance loss plus Free; How can you possibly go wrong with that.

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HijackThis (Used to Identify Spyware/Virus’s System Scanner/Debugger)

Per a Review on Download.com [Source]

First, a sidenote, Please excuse the category that HijackThis was placed in. Technically HijackThis is not really an antispyware, however we really did not have a category for it and it absolutely had to be on this list of the “Best Freeware"

"If persistent spyware is bogging down your computer, you might need HijackThis. The tiny program examines vulnerable or suspect parts of your system, such as browser helper objects and certain types of Registry keys. Pressing the Scan button generates a log of dozens of items, most of which are just customizations. Don't check off an item and hit the Fix checked button unless you're sure it's malware. Clicking Info on selected item tells you why the entry was flagged as suspicious, but not whether it's actually malware. To find that out, search the Web for that item's name or go straight to a forum, such as SpywareInfo or Computer Cops. Saving the log creates a text document you can post to these forums.

The latest version adds powerful tools to the Config window. The process manager and hosts file editor help you excise virulent infections. The unique ADS Spy tool scans for alternate data streams, which some browser hijackers use to hide from spyware removers. The program still installs into whatever directory in which you unzip the file, which can make it hard to locate. HijackThis is a serious tool for any user who needs to root out a serious infestation, but wield it with caution."

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