We at Advanced Computer engineering recommend the following utilities
CCleaner
Defraggler
Spybot Search & Destroy
Malwarebytes
HiJackThis
Glary Utilities
Norton Power Eraser
Kaspersky TDSSKiller
CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!
Cleans the following:
- Internet Explorer
- Firefox
- Google Chrome
- Opera
- Safari
- Windows – Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
- Registry cleaner
- Third-party applications
- 100% Spyware FREE
Defraggler
Most defrag tools only allow you to defrag an entire drive. Defraggler lets you specify one or more files, folders, or the whole drive to defragment.
When Defraggler reads or writes a file, it uses the exact same techniques that Windows uses. Using Defraggler is just as safe for your files as using Windows.
At a glance, you can see how fragmented your hard drive is. Defraggler’s drive map shows you blocks that are empty, not fragmented, or needing defragmentation.
- Give your hard drive a quick touch-up with Quick Defrag
- Organizes empty disk space to further prevent fragmentation
- Defragment while you sleep – and wake up with a faster PC. Set Defraggler to run daily, weekly or monthly
- Full Windows OS and Multi-lingual support
- Boot time defrag of system files
- Supports 37 major languages
Defraggler is made by Piriform, the company that also brought you CCleaner and Recuva, so is completely free!
Spybot Search & Destroy
Spybot – Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications. Spyware silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile for you that is transmitted without your knowledge to the compilers and sold to advertising companies.
If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you haven’t intentionally installed, if your browser crashes inexplicably, or if your home page has been “hijacked” (or changed without your knowledge), your computer is most probably infected with spyware.
Even if you don’t see the symptoms, your computer may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging. Spybot-S&D is free, so there’s no harm giving it a try to see if something has invaded your computer.
Spybot-S&D can also clean usage tracks, an interesting function if you share your computer with other users and don’t want them to see what you have been working on. And for professional users, Spybot-S&D allows you to fix some registry inconsistencies and extended reports.
Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware can detect and remove malware that even the most well known anti-virus and anti-malware applications fail to detect. Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware monitors every process and stops malicious processes before they even start.
Key Features:
- Light speed quick scanning.
- Ability to perform full scans for all drives.
- Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Protection Module. (requires registration)
- Database updates released daily.
- Quarantine to hold threats and restore them at your convenience.
- Ignore list for both the scanner and Protection Module.
- Settings to enhance your Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware performance.
- A small list of extra utilities to help remove malware manually.
- Multi-lingual support.
- Works together with other anti-malware utilities.
- Command line support for quick scanning.
- Context menu integration to scan files on demand.
Hijackthis
HijackThis inspects your computers browser and operating system settings to generate a log file of the current state of your computer. Using HijackThis you can selectively remove unwanted settings and files from your computer. Because the settings identified in a HijackThis log file can belong to both legitimate software and unwanted malware, it is important to use extreme caution when choosing to removing anything using HijackThis.
HijackThis also comes with a process manager, HOSTS file editor, and alternate data stream scanner.
Glary Utilities
Glarysoft’s Glary Utilities is one of the most consistently popular and most frequently recommended system utilities, and why not? It bundles some of the most useful Windows-related tools in one free download. It scans and cleans your PC, cleaning temporary files, removing junk files, fixing broken shortcuts, and resolving a wide range of issues, both major and minor, that most Windows users will have no trouble recognising. You can configure its One-Click Maintenance option to run just those processes you want with a single click, making regular maintenance just too easy for excuses. You can run any of its many tools individually, too.
Glary Utilities has a basic but colourful (and skinnable) dialog-sized interface with tabs for Status, 1-Click Maintenance, and Modules. Under Modules, Glary groups a wide variety of tools under a series of headings, some of which access the same tools from different categories: Clean & Repair, Optimise & Improve, Privacy & Security; Files & Folders; and System Tools. We clicked Scan on the 1-Click Maintenance tab, which initiated a system-wide scan for junk files, spyware, and lots of other stuff that we needed to fix or throw out: sort of like cleaning the basement, actually. Glary Utilities displayed its summary findings, and we could click to view details or just press Repair Problems to fix the lot, which we did. The tool swiftly purged our system of the obsolete, unneeded, and junk data that can clog your machine over time, compromising performance and even security.
The 1-Click Maintenance is reason enough to keep Glary Utilities and run it regularly, but more excellent reasons can be found in its Modules, which let you run Glary’s utilities individually as well as access many more tools, including a file shredder, start-up manager, memory optimiser, registry defragmenter, and file recover and undelete tool. It also lets you run a variety of Windows utilities from Glary’s interface, including the Process Manager and System Information. Running tools like the Duplicate File Finder now and again and the 1-Click Maintenance regularly will help keep your PC running fast, smooth, and safe.