Burchwords

Web Browsers

Mozilla Firefox 3 - Free
Firefox is Mozilla’s award-winning next generation Web browser. Firefox 3 delivers helpful new features to make your online experience more productive. Firefox continues to lead the way in online security, and now includes active protection from online scams to keep you safer. Choose from over a thousand useful add-ons that enhance Firefox. It’s easy to personalize Firefox to make it your own.

Opera - Free
This browser has a lot to offer, my favorite is the built in BitTorrent downloading capability. Opera’s amazing mouse gestures lets you do frequently performed browse operations with small, quick mouse movements. Some operations can be done with several different gestures. Try them both and see which one you like better.

Safari - Free
Handy if you build websites and want to see if the site looks ok on a Mac. Burchword.com looks really good on this web browser.

Antivirus

Download AVG Free 8 - Free
AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).

Highlights include:

• Automatic update functionality
• The AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run
• The AVG E-mail Scanner, which protects your e-mail
• The AVG On-Demand Scanner, which allows the user to perform scheduled and manual tests
• Free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product
• AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files

Networking & Connectivity Tools

WinSock XP Fix - Free
Offers a last resort if your Internet connectivity has been corrupted due to invalid or removed registry entries. It can often cure the problem of lost connections after the removal of Adware components or improper uninstall of firewall applications or other tools that modify the XP network and Winsock settings. If you encounter connection problems after removing network related software, Adware or after registry clean-up; and all other ways fail, then give WinSock XP Fix a try. It can create a registry backup of your current settings, so it is fairly safe to use. We actually tested it on a test machine that was having a Winsock problem due to some Adware removal, and after running the utility and rebooting, the connectivity was restored.

Spyware & Malware Removal Tools

HijackThis - Free
is a free utility which quickly scans your Windows computer to find settings that may have been changed by spyware, malware or other unwanted programs. HijackThis creates a report, or log file, with the results of the scan.
IMPORTANT: HijackThis does not determine what is good or bad. Do not make any changes to your computer settings unless you are an expert computer user.

Spyware Terminator - Free
Spyware Terminator includes Real-Time Protection, HIPS, and antivirus. Effectively remove spyware, adware, trojans, keyloggers, home page hijackers, and malware threats even dangerous threats like Look2Me, BetterInternet, VX2, and CWS. Spyware Terminator is easy-to-use, requires minimal PC resources, and performs ultra fast scans. Protect your computer with powerful real-time protection shield, advanced system scanning and safe quarantine for found spyware. Scan your computer manually or schedule full system sweeps. Perform in-depth scans of your computer’s hard drives, memory, process, registry and cookies to seek out and remove all known spyware threats. Includes optional Web Security Guard which displays website reviews and threat level to help identify potentially dangerous Web sites.
I wouldn’t use the Real-Time Protection.

SUPERAntiSpyware - Free
SUPERAntiSpyware with its Multi-Dimensional Scanning and Process Interrogation Technology will detect spyware and remove pests such as SpyLocked, WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon. Repair broken Internet connections, desktops, registry editing, and task manager. The program provides complete and custom scanning of hard drives, removable drives, memory, registry, individual folders include trusting items and excluding folders for complete customization of scanning. Detect and remove spyware, adware, malware, Trojans, dialers, worms, keyloggers, and hijackers. Repair broken Internet connections, desktops, registry editing with Repair System. Prevent potentially harmful software from installing or re-installing. First Chance Prevention examines over 50 critical points of your system each time your system starts up and shuts down to eliminate threats before they have a chance to infect and infiltrate your system.

Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware 2007 - Free
With the ability to scan your RAM, Registry, hard drives, and external storage devices for known data-mining, advertising, and tracking components, Ad-Aware 2007 easily can clean your system, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web

Spybot Search & Destroy - Free
Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove a multitude of adware files and modules from your computer. Spybot also can clean program and Web-usage tracks from your system, which is especially useful if you share your computer. Modules chosen for removal can be sent directly to the included file shredder, ensuring complete elimination from your system. For advanced users, it allows you to fix Registry inconsistencies related to adware and to malicious program installations. The handy online-update feature ensures that Spybot always has the most current and complete listings of adware, dialers, and other uninvited system residents.

General Utilities

CCleaner - Free
It’s a system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It’s fast (normally taking less that a second to run). It cleans: Internet Explorer (Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat); Firefox (Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history); Windows (Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files, and Log files); Registry cleaner (Advanced features to remove unused and old entries, including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts. So comes with a comprehensive backup feature.)

WinDirStat - Free
Find out where all your hard drive space is going. This actually shows you a visual representation of your hard drive and lets you delete files within the program.

Kill Box - Free
KillBox is a tool to delete in-use files, if the file is running, KillBox will attempt to end the process (close the running file) and delete it.

Process Explorer - Free
Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

Belarc - Free
Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes and software serial numbers, and shows the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any Web server.

Remote Access Tools

LogMeIn Free edition - Free
100% free remote access for your computer. The free version does whatever you need. Access your work computer from home.

Audio Codecs

Klite - Free
The only codec package that I’ve used. If you download a video and you hear audio, but see nothing… Get the klite package.