Granny's list of potentially helpful Windows applications!

[George]

We've all been there...the time comes when an OS reload is required. Spending hours grabbing all your favourite must-have software. I know I've quite a few applications that make using my PC more enjoyable, reliable, and secure, and I figured it may be helpful to share those!

In no particular order...

QFX KeyScrambler
As good as anti-virus/malware software is, there's always the possibility for such applications to miss certain infections: new malware comes around on a daily basis! As such, to complement other security software, I run QFX KeyScrambler Premium. The premium version isn't free, although QFX do have a free version. In the event someone were to "keylog" a PC in order to record keystrokes, this software will do exactly what it says on the tin, and scramble! Everything you type will appear normally for you, though to prying eyes, typing "Las Venturas Playground" would appear as something completely random, jibber-jabber, so to speak. This helps to keep everything private -- whether that be credit card information, or just general chit-chat.

FileHippo App Manager
Many applications are configured to automatically update, such as Google Chrome, for example. Other applications will prompt you if there's an update to download. Then there's the other category, those that do neither of these, leaving your PC running outdated and potentially vulnerable software. Fortunately, there's a quick and easy way to keep an eye on this, using Filehippo App Manager. Chances are you've downloaded something from FileHippo's network in the past. They host a huge number of applications. This software, once installed, scans the applications installed on your PC, and if it finds a newer version, it will make you aware. It can be customized to include both stable channel software, and/or beta releases -- the choice is yours. Here's what it looks like.

CCleaner
Even if all you do is browse the web, and nothing more, it's pretty amazing how much junk can build up on your PC. In some cases, we're talking gigabytes worth of data that has built up over time. This does, of course, use up space, and if you're like me, with limited SSD storage, rather than TBs worth of regular SATA HDD space, it becomes even more important to stay clean! This is about much more than space used. It's about keeping the performance of your PC up to scratch and improving security by removing obsolete files with potentially sensitive data. This application is very easy to use, you can simply Analyze your PC without actually removing anything, just to get an idea of how much junk is being stored. And if you wish to commit to removing that junk, that's easy enough to do. I formatted my PC around a week ago, and having just reinstalled and run CCleaner, it detected almost 700MB.

Lightshot
Screenshots can be tedious. Hitting the printscreen button, loading up image manipulation software such as paint, perhaps doing a little cropping, saving the file, loading up an image hosting service such as Imgur or Tinypic, navigating to the saved file, and uploading. Fortunately, there's a much faster solution, Lightshot! Once you've installed it, you simply hit the printscreen button on your keyboard as usual, and Lightshot will allow you to select the area of your screen that you wish to "screenshot" or "capture" and upload it with just one click. You don't need an account, either! Lightshot use imgur.com to host any uploads. For example, I just took this screenshot. Right click, view image URL and you'll see imgur.com.

Advanced SystemCare
First of all, don't be fooled by the name! It's Advanced in the sense it's an excellent product which delivers good results, though it's a piece of cake to install and use. This application is essentially a combination of anti-malware software such as Hitman Pro, crap cleaning software such as CCleaner and the Windows Update tool. It merges some of the things that you should be doing to properly maintain your PC, into one straight forward interface. It also has some exclusive features, such as recommendations to improve the performance of your web browser and operating system as a whole. There's also a Turbo Boost feature which I sometimes use when gaming, to help improve performance.

Enjoy!

[Deer_Hunter]

Pretty useful topic,thanks Granny!

I already use those apps,except QFX KeyScrambler and FileHippo App Manager.

[George]

Pretty useful topic,thanks Granny!

I already use those apps,except QFX KeyScrambler and FileHippo App Manager.

My pleasure!

Seeing as you use Advanced SystemCare, you're probably already aware of another Iobit product -- driver booster. This is another neat application for finding driver updates. May be worth trying that out too

[Deer_Hunter]

My pleasure!

Seeing as you use Advanced SystemCare, you're probably already aware of another Iobit product -- driver booster. This is another neat application for finding driver updates. May be worth trying that out too

Nice,I haven't checked it yet.

[Rooney]

From all of these programms on the list, i've been only using CCleaner so far, i can tell that it's definitely doing it's job quite well. Btw, i've always used AVAST Antivirus as my defence from all sorts of viruses & other garbage/junk.
Never had a clue how players literally made screens out of their monitor's background stuff... Thanks for the link! xd
Pretty useful topic, I'd like to thank you for creating it,too!

[Deer_Hunter]

Never had ativirus installed in my pc and i had a problem with viruses only once.Even tho i download a lot of things,not to mention 80% of it is piratery.
Just checkin sites,urls before i download somthin and that's all.No need for antivirus if u ask me,as some of u may know,let's just say antiviruses are 'bad' for pc.

[Jerome]

Hmm, Granny have you used Spybot "Search and Destroy" application? That's a good one.

[inno]

Useful topic, thanks anyways :3

[George]

Runi[SWEG] link=topic=33825.msg464936#msg464936 date=1443218573]
From all of these programms on the list, i've been only using CCleaner so far, i can tell that it's definitely doing it's job quite well. Btw, i've always used AVAST Antivirus as my defence from all sorts of viruses & other garbage/junk.
Never had a clue how players literally made screens out of their monitor's background stuff... Thanks for the link! xd
Pretty useful topic, I'd like to thank you for creating it,too!

Avast is definitely one of the better AV suites. Back in the day I used AVG. It always scored well in reviews, they're well-known in the industry, etc. Then the day came when they ruined the product with tonnes of bloatware, constant pop-ups to move to the paid version and so on. Avast has lots of paid offerings too, though they're much more discrete. I also like their SecureLine VPN. Reasonably priced with multiple locations to choose from.

Never had ativirus installed in my pc and i had a problem with viruses only once.Even tho i download a lot of things,not to mention 80% of it is piratery.
Just checkin sites,urls before i download somthin and that's all.No need for antivirus if u ask me,as some of u may know,let's just say antiviruses are 'bad' for pc.

I agree. If you apply some common sense whilst browsing, security products become much less worthwhile. Unfortunately we all slip up every so often -- this happens both IRL and online. That's when security software like Avast can prove helpful. I know sometimes I just browse the internet without really giving the sites I'm visiting much thought as to whether they're safe. It's not helped by the amount of zero day exploits from products such as Java or Flash, either.

Hmm, Granny have you used Spybot "Search and Destroy" application? That's a good one.

Yep! I used to use this a couple years back. After a while, I switched to the premium version of Malware Bytes. I can't remember why, though both have excellent reputations and I'd feel happy using either I think.

[Joeri]

Guys, just pay for Antivirus, seriously. Especially if you don't have a solid backup strategy. The free ones are all shitty compared to the 'premium' options. Just see any test done by av comparatives. Its like $50 a year. Stay away from McAfee. I've used F-Secure and Bitdefender in the past together wil regular scans by TrendMicro's free HouseCall.
Also: http://news.softpedia.com/news/avg-proud...2146.shtml

I have a mac and run Bitdefender's and Malwarebytes scanner once a week for peace of heart.

My favorite windows tool (of all time) is Windirstat. Its fantastic for figuring out where all your disk space went.