| Software Title | Description |
| Malware Bytes | A FREE (for manual removal) malware removal tool which I highly recommend, this has helped me rescue many a clients system recently. |
| SpyBot Search And Destroy | Another FREE anti-spyware removal tool which is again highly recommended, this packs a great number of "advanced" features into the mix, which comes in handy for removing and tweaking lots of bits of your system. |
| Avast Home Edition | This is a FREE antivirus system for home use, has to be the best FREE one available on the internet and does a better job than ones like Norton and McFee that you'd normally pay for! |
| BullGuard Internet Security | You have to pay for this, but it's one of very few I would suggest paying for, it does it's job and very well at that, if you have the coin, then go for it. |
| Software Title | Description |
| HalSoft Chat | Similar to Excite Chat in many way though never personally checked it out for a full report. |
| ICQ | The classic "I Seek You" chat facility is still going strong and still probably the best known chat to present day, too many features to name, lots and lots of plugins, skins etc. available, a must to check out. |
| PalTalk | A reasonably good chat facility, the constant popup's can be a pain but really cheap to register per year, though personally for what its capable of I wouldn't bother and put up with the popups, it does have excellent voice but crappy video. |
| Skype | This is an excellent alternative to chats like MSN / Windows Live Messenger, a second must have if you're a chatter. |
| Trillian | If you want to manage nearly all chats in one box, this is the one for you, visit their site to find out what it will connect to. |
| Windows Live Messenger | The latest version of Windows Live Messenger will blow you away, a lot of new features have been added to this Messenger platform. |
| Software Title | Description |
| AnyDVD | A DVD decrypter that runs in the background of windows, constantly monitoring when you are needing to decrypt DVD information and intercepting the protection and removing before it gets to the software that called for the DVD. Removes the need for a seperate decryption process. |
| DVD2One | This can shrink DVD titles to allow them to be backed up onto the smaller DVD5 format. This does require you decrypt the original, which you need to use either AnyDVD, DVD Decrypter or any other similar program. |
| DVD Shrink | This is a nice piece of FREE software that allows you to backup a complete DVD and gives you the option to only backup the parts you want. |
| Nero | One of highest recommended software for copying and/or creating CD/DVD's. |
| PowerISO | The best software for creating and/or modifying CD/DVD images. |
| Software Title | Description |
| ATI Visit Download Page | Here you will find a complete selection of ATI drivers. |
| Creative Visit Download Page | Here you will find a complete selection of the latest Creative drivers. |
| Gigabyte Visit Download Page | Here you will find a complete selection of Gigabyte drivers. |
| Guillemot/Hercules Visit European Download Page Visit Hong Kong Download Page Visit Japan Download Page Visit North American Download Page | Get the full range of drivers for your Hercules based cards. |
| Matrox Visit Download Page | Here you will find a complete selection of Matrox drivers and utilities etc. |
| MSI Visit Download Page | Here you will find a complete selection of drivers made by MicroStar International. |
| nVidia Visit Download Page | Here you will find a complete selection of the latest nVidia drivers. |
| Software Title | Description |
| Messenger Plus! | Messenger Plus! adds a lot of cool and useful stuff to Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger something well worth looking at. WARNING : when you install, DO NOT install the 3rd party software, which adds a very annoying CiD popup to your computer. |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | QUOTE: "Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more." I personally find this software a godsend and suggest anyone using real email accounts to give this a try. The only downside with Thunderbird is that it doesn't support hotmail accounts, then again that will teach yah for using rubbish email locations in the first place! |
| Mozilla Firefox | I think this is the best internet browser out there at the moment, and its FREE! |
| Software Title | Description |
| Bit Tornado | This is a nice little bit torrent downloader to use, with lots of download / tweaking options. |
| Bit Torrent | This is the offical Bit Torrent downloader, its come a long way since its early days and still a popular choice. |
| eMule | This replaces eDonkey and is much easier to setup and use, especially good if you need to download larger files, lots of good features etc. |
| LimeWire | A very popular file share program. |
| µTorrent | "U" Torrent or "Micro" Torrent as it's also known as, is probably the best torrent software available at the moment, and it's FREE. |
| Software Title | Description |
| Sun Java Virtual Machine | Java installer from Sun in all languages to allow Java based chats etc. to function within various platforms. |
| Filename | Description |
| DVD Fix | This registry file removes all 3rd party CD/DVD drivers and allows Windows to reset the original control drivers for the drives, especially handy if you are one of many that found you suddenly couldn't play DVD's etc. after installing some form of copying software. |
| Explorer - Copy To / Move To | Adds Copy To... and Move To... to Windows Explorer. |
| Explorer - Seperate Process | Enables Windows Explorer to run in its own seperate process, uses a little more resource but if one explorer fails, it doesn't cascade the others. |
| Show Hidden Devices | This reg file allows you to see hidden devices which are usually hidden completely from the user. |
| Increase TCP | This tweaks your internet "buffer" to cache up more information while downloading, providing a nice speed boost. |
| Memory Tweak | Been a while since I've used this, but basically altered how your memory on the system was handled by Windows to provide a better performance gain. |
| Network Detweak | Use this to disable the tweak you did with the one below. |
| Network Tweak | Basically exactly what it says on the label. |
| Shift Key Slow Motion Off | Vista Only - This registry file removes the below option. |
| Shift Key Slow Motion On | Vista Only - This registry file adds a cool slow motion feature which when you are using AERO, allows you to see the animations in slow motion by simply holding the SHIFT key. |
| Smooth Mouse | Can smooth out glitches for some mouse movement problems. |
| Start Menu History Off | This switched off the start menu history completely in Windows XP. |
| Start Menu History On | This switches on the start menu history if switched off with the above. |
| Unload DLL's | By default, Windows will keep certain DLL's in memory even when a program is unloaded and no longer needs them, this file tells Windows to always unload DLL's when a program is unloaded to regain resources, though this can slow down program execution time. |
| Windows 7 Icons Off | Vista Only - This registry file removes the below option. |
| Windows 7 Icons On | Vista Only - This registry file adds the Windows 7 "textless" taskbar icons. |
| XP Default WinSock | This is a complete default winsock entry file incase you are infected with things like New.Net which can kill your WinSock settings, very handy thing to keep safe! |
| Software Title | Description |
| CCleaner | The best FREE system cleaning tool around! |
| Daemon Tools | Daemon Tools allows you to mount images up to four virtual drives, a must have for those who have backup copies of games or simply want to test an image before wasting CD/DVD's. |
| Defraggler | The best FREE defragmenter out there! |
| Fresh Diagnose | A nice little FREE diagnostic and benchmark utility. Always getting updated to deal with new hardware etc. |
| LOP Uninstaller | This will allow you to remove that pathetic LOP default homepage crap, enjoy! |
| nVidia CoolBits Hack | This nifty little registry entry adds a hidden set of controls for clocking your nVidia video card. NOTE : Only use this if you are familiar with overclocking etc. as it could damage your hardware or make your system unstable if you tweak things too much. |
| Recuva | An absolutely brilliant and FREE file recovery tool. |
| SG TCP Optimizer | This a great little utility for tweaking your connections, especially people with broadband (No good for Windows Vista). |
| Windows Media Player Series | This is the latest release of Windows Media Player Series. |
| WinRAR | Used for compressing files etc. and in my personal view is superior to WinZip. Trial Version. |
| Winzip And Tools | A utility for compressing or uncompressing your files into ZIP format, handy to have if you download a lot from the internet as most things are compressed using this format. |
| XP Explorer Tweak | This little beauty has fixed my main problem, Windows Explorer restarting etc. which is what a lot of people see as the desktop "restarting", there are three registry entries which tell Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer to run is seperate processes, this means when one instance or process of Explorer fails it doesn't kill off all other instances, this includes the instance running your desktop. This does use more resources but I think its worth it for the stability it gives to the system. |