Tools

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What follows is a list of tools that we frequently use when servicing our customers. You can download them and install them yourself, or call us to help you install and configure these applications.

Anti-Virus

Using your computer everyday is something you can easily start to take for granted. If you get a computer virus however, it can bring your computer to a stand-still, or worse, prevent your computer from booting (starting-up), or cause a catastrophic loss of data. That's why it good to have an anti-virus application installed. There are many to choose from, but we found a free one that seems to work quite well. It's called AVG Anti-Virus and you can download it here.

Anti-Spyware

In today's computing environment, spyware is prevalent, so here are a few different tools to help you protect yourself. Webroot's Spysweeper is one of the best rated anti-spyware applications out there, and it's one we use quite frequently. Get the scan-only version free here. There is a also free spyware package called eiwido anti-spyware. Download the free version here.

There are a variety of other spyware tools out there. Check 'em out by clicking on the links below:

MS Windows Defender

Hijack This!

Ad-Aware

Spybot Search and Destroy

CW Shredder

Trojan Hunter

Kidsafe Computing

If your children or grandchildren are using a computer in the home, it's a good idea to set limits for time and content, just like you do with TV. We have found a good application to help you with controlling use of the computer. You can block certain internet content or allow only specific sites to be visited. You can also use it to limit the amount of time your kids spend on the computer automatically. It will warn them when their time is about up, then automatically logoff their account when the time has expired. Click here to download a trial copy. It is a fairly complicated application to setup, so we do recommend hiring a professional for help if you are a novice Windows user.

Backup Software

To keep a current copy of your system in the event of a disk drive failure, we use Acronis TrueImage 9.0 backup software. With it you can backup from your hard disk to DVDs/CDs, an internal disk drive, or a network disk drive. You can create a CD that you boot from if your drive fails, and then restore your backup from a network drive. It's one of the few inexpensive backup packages that allow you to restore from a network drive. You can download an evaluation copy here.