Each year during the holidays I go back home to visit family and friends. As a hobby, I always find myself sitting down at their computers resolving their latest system troubles. So a few year back I sent a email list of the best free tools (that I know of personally) to keep their system virus free and happy.

So here is my list of advice for 2008:

Operating Systems:

1. Stick with Windows XP even on new PC’s, if possible. Fortunately and unfortunately for Microsoft, Windows XP is a solid operating system with years of patches and improvements behind it. Fortunately because MS found itself under the gun from hackers a few years ago due to their disregard for internet security and have since caught up. Making XP now rock solid and secure. Unfortunately for MS their previous operating system is so good infact that their latest version, Windows Vista, is not being adopted as quickly as they had hoped. Vista needs and much more powerful machine to function as intended and in return only adds minor improvements to productivity, security, and user capability. As for Linux, its a useful operating system if you are a techie, want to invest the time to learn how to use it, and (absolutely required) want to be critical of all the sheep (99.2% of the other people) that do not appreciate the glory which is Linux. Apple’s operating systems are very nice looking, functional, and user friendly, but are still only about 10% of the market. So unless you want to be the odd person out, wear black turtle necks daily (because you are that cool), and want to be somewhat limited professionally it’s best to stick with XP, with 90% market share.
2. Use Add/Remove Programs to remove any program you have not used in 6 months and may never use again. Too often we load software on our machine to try it out, and never use again. If the application is 6 months or older with no use, you downloaded it from the internet, or you have no clue what it does it is a likely target from removing it. Don’t worry about warranties, losing software forever, or system problems - I assure you removing junk software will take time but will be better in the long run. If you navigate to the control panel and choose “Add or Remove Programs”, then use the “Sort by: Date Last Used” option to discover the cholesterol-like junk programs that are slowing down you PC.

Here’s some of my criteria:

• do I have two applications that do the same thing? Microsoft Works and Microsoft Office - ditch Works.
• did I download it? I can get it again if I want it - yes! - delete!
• when was it last used? - 6 month or older = pitchable (some exceptions apply)
• game I have the CD/DVD/media for and haven’t played lately? remove it - most will keep the progress file so if you reload.
• trial software that I did not purchase - remove.
• annoys me because it load in my taskbar for no good reason? Real Audio = gone.
• the kids like it because it changes the mouse cursor to SpongeBob - mean ol’ daddy says GONE!

1. Getting tired of how your Windows XP OS looks? Wish you too could wear black turtlenecks or dickies everyday too? Envious of the stunning good looks in Apple’s Leopard and Microsoft’s Vista OS, but want to continue using XP for all the reasons I mentioned in item #1. Try BricoPack Vista InspiratUltimate. No guarantee that your system will remain as reliable, but you definitely will have a better looking PC and you can always remove it if does become unreliable.

Security Software:

1. Ditch your expensive (and likely out-of-date) anti-virus software on your home PC and switch to the free Grisoft’s AVG . I have been using on my home PC for years and have been very happy with it. Everyone I have recommended AVG to has installed it and have been very happy. I highly recommend Grisoft’s anti-virus products for small businesses and enterprise also. If every company had similar corporate ethics and generosity to non-business users our industry would be miles ahead of where it is today.
2. Spyware is software that gets installed on your computer without your knowledge and does nothing to benefit you. It is there only to consume your expensive computing resources to make others wealthy with intimate knowledge of your browsing habits, password, financial information, and advertising preferences. Sometimes this software can even be used to infect other users computers with virus’ and spyware. You can stop these programs from lurking on your computer by using either (or both) of the following free products. Lavasoft makes a very nice product called Ad-aware which has a great user interface and is easy to use. Spybot Search and Destroy is another great product. Personally I use both and switch between them to keep my systems spyware free.
3. Startup Monitor is a very simple application that monitors the list of applications that startup when your operating system loads. Unfortunately, programs such as Real Audio, AOL , Microsoft Messenger, Adobe Flash, Sun’s Javascript console, etc. decide that it is in your best interest for them to load as soon as your machine loads up so they can seem bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when you execute them. The downside these program waste your system resources for no other purpose than to advertise themselves and make the applications seem less bloated and slow (which they are). This application lets you know when someone thinks it’s in your best interest to load up their software automatically (slowing down your pc) and lets you have the final decision. It’s also good to keep in mind that many virus’ attempt to load themselves on startup so this is one additional line of defense to keep your system virus free.

Development Tools:

1. Microsoft’s Visual Studio Express is a slightly less featured version of the full Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and is completely free. I highly recommend this version for professionals, students, and hobbyists alike. I have worked with a number of development tools and VS is still my favorite and ideal development tool.
2. For unit testing your VS code NUnit is one of my free favorites. NUnit is a unit-testing framework for all .Net languages. Initially ported from JUnit, the current production release, version 2.4, is the fifth major release of this xUnit based unit testing tool for Microsoft .NET.

If you have others that are worthy additions to this list add them to the comments section and I will take a look at them!!!!