Windows Repair and Tech Support Software

Piriform’s CCleaner (short for Crap Cleaner, literally.) cleans up your hard drive as well as your registry and keeps your PC clean.

Description: After achieving over 200 million downloads, you would have to think a software is pretty darn good, right? I have used it on many computers and I’ve never had it crash, freeze, or act unreliably. With the features that it has and how well it functions, I have to say that CCleaner is worthy of the highest honor I can give it on this site. To see how many that is though, you’ll have to read (or skip) to the bottom of the post.

Compatibility: Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP and XP 64, 2003, Vista 32 and 64

Necessary Info: CCleaner cleans the junk out of your different programs including:

• Internet Explorer - Temporary files, URL history, cookies, Autocomplete form history, index.dat.
• Firefox - Temporary files, URL history, cookies, download history.
• Opera - Temporary files, URL history, cookies.
• 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 and more… also comes with a comprehensive backup feature.
• Third-party applications - Removes temp files and recent file lists (MRUs) from many apps including Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, MS Office, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and many more…

PROs: It cleans all the junk listed above and does it for free.

CONs: I haven’t yet figured out which check-box prevents the software from removing my commonly used Start Menu Items. I should probably be more diligent in my search but up till now, I haven’t been. This is pretty minor!

Rating:

CCleaner: Download free software HERE.

Thanks,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: Computer Repair, Registry, Speed Up, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Avira AntiVir Personal is (in my humble opinion) the best free antivirus software available. It is what I use on my own PCs.

Description: Avira AntiVir Personal is a free antivirus program. It performs updates every day and catches a higher percentage of viruses than almost any other antivirus program. Just check the latest test results from AV-Test.org at Virus Bulletin.

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP 32 and 64, Vista 32 and 64

Necessary Info: AntiVir Personal is a free antivirus program from German software manufacturer Avira. Avira consistently ranks in the top 2 or 3 in Antivirus comparison tests by AV-Test.org. Check the latest test results. Of course this is the free version of the commercial software and they want you to purchase the full version but the free version is good for at least 1 full year. I haven’t had it for a complete year yet so I am not certain what happens after the year is up but I am sure that they want you to purchase the full version.

PROs: Great antivirus software that scans every file that is opened or saved. It does not slow your PC down nearly as much as McAfee, Norton, AVG, or most of the others. It is quite lean in comparison and catches more viruses. This is a win-win situation! It updates every day to ensure that your virus definitions are as current as they can be. It can be configured to perform a virus scan every day.

CONs: If you want it to perform a virus scan every day, you have to configure it yourself. When the program updates it’s virus signatures it puts a pop-up on your desktop to encourage you to purchase the commercial version of the software. Simply click “OK” and it goes away.

Rating:

Conclusion: Avira AntiVir Personal requires less of your systems resources than most antivirus programs and catches more viruses than most of the competition. Get it. The only reason that I give it 4 thumbs instead of 5 is the pop-up that encourages you to purchase the commercial version.

Avira AntiVir Personal: Download free antivirus software HERE.

Thanks,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: 4 Thumbs-Up, Antivirus, Free Software, Security, Tech Support Software, Windows 2000, Windows Repair Software, Windows Vista, Windows XP

TrueCrypt is a free encryption software for Windows. And even if they charged for it, I’d recommend it.

Description: Encrypt sensitive data quickly and securely.

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP & Vista, OS X 10.4 & 10.5, Linux - Check Here.

Free Encryption Software

Necessary Info: TrueCrypt is an free open source encryption program that has versions for Windows, OS X and Linux. There is almost no limit to the size of the programs that you can encrypt. Trust me, I had a 4 gigabyte encryption file.  =)

From their own website “TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device). On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password/keyfile(s) or correct encryption keys. Entire file system is encrypted (e.g., file names, folder names, contents of every file, free space, meta data, etc).”

There is a ton of documentation so I’m not going to cover it all here but do check out their documentation page.

LifeHacker has a great post on how to use truecrypt.

Rating:

Conclusion: TrueCrypt is good free encryption software for windows. Trust me, I use it myself! Don’t forget to use a strong password!

TrueCrypt: Download free software HERE.

The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: 5 Thumbs-Up, Free Software, Open Source, Security, Utility, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows XP

SEObook’s Rank Checker leaves a lot to be desired even considering the fact that it is a free program.

Description: Check your SEO rank in 3 different search engines.

Compatibility: Firefox 2 and Higher.

Necessary Info: Rank Checker is a plugin for Firefox that advertises that it will check the rank for websites in 3 different search engines. There are a few things that it does well but its main feature is a flop.

It has a nice but relatively basic interface which allows you to input your domain and then input as many keywords or keyword phrases as you would like. You can also save the entire list to check them again later. Nice feature  because no one wants to have to type each and every key word in every time they do a rank check.

Rank Checker’s main function is to check rank for the domains that you specify and it does this with 3 search engines. It seems to check Yahoo well but Google and Windows Live don’t seem to do very well with this program if they show up at all. I have a ranking on the first page of Google with some of the keywords that I checked… And they came up as having no ranking at all. To me that earns it about a 1/3 ranking…

Rating:

Conclusion: It does a good job of checking yahoo so use it for that. But if you want to check your rankings for Google, (doesn’t everyone???) I recommend that you look for another piece of software. Rank Checker can’t do it.

Rank Checker: Download free software HERE.

The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: 2 Thumbs-Up, Free Software, SEO, Web Browser, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows XP

If you or your company create free software you can get it reviewed here for free. I ask for nothing in return. I just want to provide people with honest reviews for good free software.

You can email me files or links. Please send all emails to Tim with a title of “Software to Review”. Please put this title on your email so I won’t delete it. Also include your contact info as well as web addresses for your software program and a direct link to download the software directly.

I will get back to you by the end of the next business day to confirm receipt of the email and give you an approximate date that you can expect to see your software reviewed on this blog. Dates given are not set in stone and will vary.

With very few exceptions, I only review Windows software. I will not review any Linux software as I don’t run any Linux systems. I currently will not review any Apple software, though it may be accepted later. I will change this page if and when I start accepting it.

Since I want to be good to my readers, every program and file will be scanned for viruses and spyware. If anything comes up, you will be notified and it will not be reviewed. End of story.

Thank you,
The Free Downloadable Software Fan

written by Tim \\ tags: Submit Software, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows XP