Top 7 Free PC Utilities
Posted on August 13, 2007
Filed Under Networking, Open Source/Freeware, Security, Software, Windows |
Everyone wishes that a computer would just run forever without having maintenance and without ever slowing down. Sadly, computers are prone to electronic and mechanical failure as well as a plethora of software related issues and compatibility problems. The truth is – keeping a computer running reliably is challenging at best.
You would think that something with the computing power of today’s PCs, the dang thing would simply be able to tell you “hey, my memory’s getting a bit cloudy, you need to change memory module 0 before I die completely!”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Certainly there is software available that can help troubleshoot hardware and software problems and software that can help prevent such problems, but often they are expensive and tend to be bloated and difficult to use. But there are alternatives.
As I may or may not have mentioned in this column, I’m a fan of free software and in particular, open source software. Some of the free and open source utilities are as good of not better than their commercial counterparts and some of them have saved the day for me more than once. On that note, some of the best are:
7. DriveImage XML – a replacement for Norton Ghost, DriveImage XML lets you make an image of an entire hard drive and copy it to a different hard drive. You can even make scheduled backups and DriveImage XML will let you recover anything from a single file to an entire drive. Download it from http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm
6. 7-Zip – speaking of backups, sometimes you need to dump a lot of information to a small amount of space. This compression utility and replacement for WinZip sports one of the best compression ratios and can create multiple archive files that will fit on a series of CDs for example. Download it from http://www.7-zip.org/
5. ClamWin – there are plenty of free antivirus programs out there but few of them are as flexible as ClamAV. ClamAV is open source and as such has found itself used in firewalls, email gateways, and ~~~~~~~~. ClamWin is the Windows version of ClamAV and I’ve used it without a hiccup on a local non-profit’s network for some three years now. Download it from http://www.clamwin.com/
4. SIW – (System Information for Windows) – sometimes you just need to know what you have. SIW gives you detailed information about your computer hardware and software and provides a complete inventory. SIW is stand alone so it doesn’t need to be installed and can be run from a CD, the network, or a USB memory stick for ultimate portability. Download it from http://www.gtopala.com/
3. Darik’s Boot and Nuke – if you’ve ever replaced a computer and needed to wipe the old one clean to donate to a charity or give to a friend, Darik’s Boot and Nuke is for you. DBAN is a bootable floppy disk that securely wipes a computer clean and meets US Department of Defence and RCMP standards. Download it from http://dban.sourceforge.net
2. System Restore – not really a free program but one included with Windows, System Restore has come to the rescue more times than I care to remember. If Windows suddenly becomes unstable, often restoring it to a date when it ran well will make things well again, at least until the next time Windows suddenly becomes unstable. Enable it in Control Panel | System | System Restore
1. Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win) – by far the most useful free program – or more accurately, free set of programs – out there for Windows PCs. If your computer won’t boot you can startup with this specialized version of Windows that runs from a CD. The CD is packed full of useful utilities to help get the computer booting normally. This is one of those invaluable gems and can be downloaded from http://www.ubcd4win.com/
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