Technodorm » Windows XP

4 Best Free Antivirus for Home Users

Fahad — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:44:13 +0000

One of the most important aspects of securing your computer from hackers, viruses, and spyware is through installing an antivirus. It’s also, perhaps, the most difficult choice as there are many antivirus software out there, including paid software such as Symantec Norton Antivirus or NOD32. Most of the paid antivirus have yearly subscription prices which makes them an unviable option for lite computer users. On numerous occasions I have been asked which is the best free antivirus or which antivirus will not slow down my computer etc and this article seeks to answer these questions.

Any of these 4 free antivirus will be able to protect your computer from viruses and hackers though you should keep in mind that you will need to update your antivirus every couple of days so that it stays effective.

1. Avast

Avast provides both free and paid antivirus solutions. From their feature rich free version, I would think that lite users would be adequately protected. The free version of Avast provides real-time protection which is a must for any antivirus solution though many free antiviruses don’t provide this feature. Avast also has favorable reviews which adds to its reputation of being reliable. It also protects protocols such as P2P, IM, Network and Web Shields. In my opinion, it is the best free antivirus on the market right now. It supports Windows 7, Vista, 2000 and XP (both 32 and 64 bit).

2. Avira AntiVir

Avira AntiVir released version 10 just 2 days ago which adds cloud-based detection meaning it should perform much faster than before. Avira is frequently featured on top of every free antivirus list and that is because it performs to a high degree of standard for home users. Version 10 of this free antivirus adds many new features which puts it on top of AVG Free in this list. It also includes adware and spyware protection. It supports both Windows and UNIX.

3. AVG Free Edition

AVG is a pioneer of free antivirus solutions. AVG offers both paid and free versions of its antivirus and although many people criticize the great amount of features slashed in the free version, it is still undoubtedly one of the best free antivirus right now. I have personally used it for many years and have been very satisfied with its performance. It provides excellent virus detection with real-time capability to block any virus from entering your system. One of the key advantages of AVG is that it is light on resources and has automatic updates. It is also probably the most popular free antivirus solution to date. It also provides spyware protection which is an added benefit. It supports Windows 7, Vista, 2000 and XP.

4. Panda Cloud Antivirus

Panda Cloud Antivirus is a relatively new free antivirus solution and works on cloud-based detection. The prime advantage of it is the short time needed for it to fully scan your computer for viruses. Users have reported scanning time to be as low as 5 minutes. It offers real-time virus protection while not using a lot of system resources. This antivirus would be great for low-powered computer systems. It supports Windows 7, Vista and XP.

Any of the above four antivirus solutions should provide sufficient protection for home users while keeping a check on system resources and providing timely updates to new viruses.

Stop and Resume Any Windows Process

Saad — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:50:50 +0000

Did you come across a situation where you know that a particular program or process on your computer is taking too much memory, and slowing down your computer immensely? Ever wanted to suspend this process for a little bit to increase the efficiency of computer? Well, Now you can.

Polaris Software has come up with an application that lets you suspend any process you want. The beauty of this application is that it does not terminate the process and therefore, does not result in any loss of data. When you need the process running again, you can do so just with a single mouse click. Download “Free Process Freezer” now.

Check Windows 7 Startup Programs

Fahad — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:57:42 +0000

Here is another great little utility program which allows you to check all the different Windows 7 startup programs. What this means is that you can get a list of all the different processes and programs which are loaded upon Windows 7 Startup. This can be a very useful utility which can help you to identify unneeded programs that are loaded with Windows 7. You will have to remove those Windows 7 startup programs yourself though. You could also uninstall any programs that you do not use anymore but which are still loaded upon startup. You could also identify which program causes an error upon loading by identifying all of your Windows 7 startup programs. There are many uses for this application and I have only pointed out a couple of possible scenarios where this program may be used.

How to Check Windows 7 Startup Programs

Startup Discoverer allows you to easily view all of your windows startup programs.

Download the Startup Discoverer program by clicking here.
Extract and run the application by opening the exe file.
The following image shows you the interface of this program.

You can list all the different startup programs as categorized by the different buttons. You may want to click on the “Show All Runs” button at the bottom left to view all of your Windows 7 startup programs at once.

So thats it. Now you can pinpoint any programs which may be lagging your Windows at startup. You can remove these programs from Windows 7 startup by checking the specific program settings or checking your Windows 7 startup folder on your hard drive.

So download Startup Discoverer now to check Windows 7 startup programs. This application works with all versions of Windows including XP and Vista. The homepage of this useful application can be found at Leelu Soft.

Download Google Chrome Offline Installer

Fahad — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:54:15 +0000

Google Chrome is one of the premier browsers nowadays and is in much demand due to its popular features such as fast browsing, low resource usage, clean/minimal user interface and ofcourse the trustable google brand. Google Chrome has seen immense growth since its launch and has a market share of about 3% right now. The official Google Chrome website lets you download the latest stable version or the beta version. If you decide to download through there, you will download a small file around 500kB which itself is only the google chrome installer and not the actual browser. The installer will then download the browser which should be around 8MB. This is all good and such but you may experience problems when you have to install the browser on several computers, and some of which may not have internet connectivity. The solution is to download the google chrome offline installer.

Steps to Download Google Chrome Offline Installer

Once you click the “Download Google Chrome” button on the chrome website, you are taken to the google chrome terms of service page which will have an “accept and install” button. If you click the button now, you will only be able to download the 500kb google chrome installer file, which is not the file you need.
To download the google chrome offline installer, add “?standalone=1″ (without the quotes) at the end of the url on the address bar so your full url should be http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?standalone=1
Once you have added the above line into your address bar and hit the enter button, you will notice that the page will reload but there wont be any noticeable changes. This time, however, if you click the “accept and install” button, you will be prompted to download a bigger sized file around 8-9MB. This is the Google Chrome Offline Installer!
Download the file and use it at any computer you desire.

Similarly, if you want to download the latest beta version chrome offline installer, just add the “standalone=1″ parameter at the end of the address bar though you will need to add the “&” sign before this parameter to separate it from the beta version parameter. The final url after you have added the above parameter, should be http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?extra=betachannel&standalone=1

Transform Windows XP into Windows 7 using Seven Remix XP

Fahad — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:39:00 +0000

It has been more then a month since Windows 7 beta was relased to the public and unfortunately you cannot download the beta legally anymore. If you missed the chance to download windows 7 but still want to experience it than transforming your Windows XP into Windows 7 will give you a good visual feel to it. Seven Remix XP is a free software which enables you to transform Windows XP to Windows 7. The GUI for Windows XP will be improved and will be given a feel just like that of Windows 7. The program will replace your system files and graphic resources files for icons, etc so use the program with caution.

The above screenshot shows you how your Windows XP desktop will look like after you transform it to Windows 7.

Requirements to use Seven Remix:

Windows XP (Home, Pro, Corporate, RTM, SP1, SP2, SP3)
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Windows Media Center Edition (2003-2005)
Windows 2003 (Datacenter, Web, RTM, SP1, Standard, Enterprise)
Any language version of the above Operating Systems
Seven Remix will not work with 64 bit versions of Windows!

Seven Remix will replace your existing system files and will make a backup of them as well. You can uninstall the program to revert back to Windows XP style anytime you want. You can go to the author page by clicking here or you an download the program from here directly.

[Via Nirmaltv]